ON DIFFERENTIATING MICROSOFT ZUNE

FILL 'ER UP

Well, it's official.  Consumers will be able to buy Microsoft's Zune, it's counter-punch to Apple's iPod, on November 14th for around $250 list.  The press release from Microsoft details the product's features and add-on accessories.

This first attempt on a MP3 player doesn't seem to offer too much dramatically new vs. the iPod, or any other mainstream MP3 player.

However, this one bit caught my eye:

""A selection of preloaded content including songs, music videos and film shorts are installed on the device’s hard drive to help consumers discover new artists and entertainment."

The release details the music and video bundled into the hard drive.  It boils down to 9 music tracks, 12 music videos, and three short video films.  None of it seems to be from mainstream acts, at least to this one reader's eye.

But it does highlight that the practice of bundling of sampler applications and content that's so prevalent with new PCs, is coming to non-PC devices.

This time though, the industry has the benefit of hind-sight.  It's an opportunity to do things over...to try things not tried before.

Maybe there's an opportunity to create win-win models with both upcoming and mainstream artists/publishers to bundle a lot more content onto music players. 

Give mainstream users a different way to get content, be it music or video, onto these gizmos other than via ripping CDs/DVDs and/or downloading from online services.

Perhaps there're are promotional opportunities for a much wider group of artists bundled onto these devices.

It'd be one heck of a way for Microsoft to differentiate it's music player from the get go.

Just a thought.

Comments

[Yaser Anwar]

Michael,

Interesting thoughts. I think MSFT has tried in a way to emulate what you have said with the WiFi music sharing service.

However, I remain skeptical about transfering songs through WiFi, as its a cumbersom and not so quick way to transfer songs. Though they haven't revealed the speeds of the transfer.

What I'd like to see, be it from MSFT, AAPL or any other "me-too" .mp3 device maker is hands off bluetooth connection.

I'm surprised they haven't already made the headphone wires extinct. Gaming controllers come with wireless connections, hopefully pods and mp3 players will soon too!

[Yaser Anwar]

A nice comparison courtesy the WSJ of the 6 mp3 players (Apple is the best according to me)

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-musicply0609.html
(subscription only)